(NO. 190.) SECOND READING. (Hansard, 18 July 1870)

§ THE DUKE OF RICHMOND

, in moving that the Bill be now read the second time, said, that the measure originated in representations made to him when President of the Board of Trade. His right hon. Friend (Mr. Cave), then Vice President, undertook to deal with the question; but a change of Government caused the measure to be in abeyance for some time, and when, subsequently, it passed through some stages in the House of Commons, Mr. Cave's illness necessitated its abandonment. He believed the present President of the Board of Trade was favourable to legislation on the subject, though, owing to his prolonged ill-health, he was not committed to any of the details of the Bill; and the Parliamentary Secretary of the Board (Mr. Shaw Lefevre), had rendered material assistance to Mr. Cave in its preparation—especially on some of the legal points which it involved. Admitting that Government should not interfere too much with private undertakings, he (the Duke of Richmond) did not 392 think the Bill went further in this direction than the Regulation of Railways Bill, passed during his presidency of the Board of Trade, which required railway companies to render accounts in a uniform manner, and to give shareholders the fullest information of their business transactions, which, he believed, had worked extremely well. Up to this time policyholders in assurance companies had had no voice, and little or no information, as to matters which deeply affected them. They represented something like £400,000,000, or half the amount of the National Debt, and no class of sufferers from the commercial disasters of the last few years was more to be pitied than policyholders. One company was transferred to another behind their backs; and he might mention as an instance that the Tontine Office was transferred to another office, the latter to the English and Irish Church, that to the British Nation, and that again to the European. The policyholder must either submit to such transfers or sacrifice all the money he had put by for his family; and one of the objects of the Bill was to put him on the same footing as the shareholder, by giving him a voice in questions of amalgamation or the transfer of business. The Bill also provided that life accounts should be kept separate from all other accounts, and all receipts in respect of life assurance carried to a separate fund, so that greater security would be afforded to the policyholder. It was further provided that statements of accounts should be prepared and laid before Parliament every year. Upon that point Prussia was so careful that she required insurance companies to obtain a concession from the Government before granting any life policies; they were then bound to show the amount of their receipts and expenditure; while the Government reserved to itself the right of withdrawing the concession should it any time deem the company to be in an unsatisfactory condition. Another provision of the Bill was that every company should, before commencing business, make a deposit of £20,000, to show that it was a bonâ fide undertaking. The result of the Bill, if passed into law, would be that small bubble companies would not come into existence, while strong companies would be much better managed. The latter part of the Bill would place the policyholders in the same 393 position before the Court, with respect to the winding-up of the company, as that in which the shareholders stood now. The result of its operation on the whole would, he felt satisfied, be to affect most favourably the interests of those provident people who sought to make provision for their families by giving a fresh stimulus in that direction, and thus tending to increase the welfare and prosperity of the country, which the fraudulent proceedings of the last few years had done so much to check.